On March 23, at a workshop that Energy Foundation China helped to organize, the city of Shenzhen announced an ambitious new goal of reaching the World Health Organization's interim target II fine particulate matter (WHO-II PM2.5) standard—annual concentration of less than 25 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m3)—by 2020. This makes Shenzhen the first city in China to voluntarily set up a more stringent target than China’s national air quality standard.
Shenzhen is the first metropolitan city in China with a population of over 10 million to successfully achieve China’s national PM2.5 annual concentration standard of 35 µg/m3. In 2015, Shenzhen’s PM2.5 stood at 30 µg/m3. In contrast, Beijing’s 2015 PM2.5 annual concentration stood at 80.6 µg/m3. Most Chinese cities are still failing to meet the national standard.
Shenzhen’s achievement has strong symbolic value. The coastal metropolis is one of the four cities that China designates as Tier I, the other three being Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Demonstrations of good policy in these Tier I cities have a strong influence over the rest of China.
As China struggles through an economic slowdown, the perception that pollution control could harm the economy has become widespread. But Shenzhen is cleaning up its air at the same time that it is growing its economy. Its GDP grew by 8.9 percent in 2015; China’s national average was only 6.9 percent.
Shenzhen has also achieved its impressive air quality in a low-carbon way, adjusting its energy and industrial structure. Coal only accounts for 6.3 percent of Shenzhen’s primary energy and almost all of this coal is burned in one power plant with advanced emission controls. Shenzhen’s economy also has high energy efficiency. Energy use per unit of GDP is only half of China’s national average. In 2015, Shenzhen became one of the US-China Peaking Pioneer cities, committing to an early greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions peak of 2022.
Experts at the workshop, including Tsinghua University’s Hao Jiming, Peking University’s Zhang Yuanhang, and Deputy Director General of the Ministry of Environmental Protection’s (MEP) new Air Department Wang Jian agreed that Shenzhen will serve as a model for other cities fighting air pollution.
During the workshop, Shenzhen’s Environmental Protection Bureau discussed the measures it would take to achieve the WHO-II PM2.5 standard. Here are a few highlights:
•By 2020, it plans to phase out all China I and II diesel vehicles, as well as China III diesel vehicles used for more than 10 years. All yellow sticker vehicles will be prohibited in the whole city as of July 2016. By the end of 2016, it will apply the China V standard for diesel vehicles and raise the standard to China VI by 2020;
•By 2017, it will make all public buses new energy vehicles; by 2019 all taxis in the city will be new energy vehicles; by 2020, at least 120,000 new energy vehicles will be on the road;
•It will install diesel particulate filters on all on-road and off-road diesel vehicles, equipment, and port vessels by 2020;
•It will establish low emission zones for cars, off-road diesel vehicles and equipment, and vessels by 2019;
•It will retrofit or replace gasoline and diesel vehicles/equipment at ports to liquefied natural gas vehicles/equipment;
•It will place stringent controls on volatile organic compounds in key sectors;
•It will enhance coordination mechanisms, both cross-agency cooperation within Shenzhen and cooperation with other cities in the Pearl River Delta region.
Most of these measures will also have strong GHG emission reduction effects, e.g. reducing black carbon from diesel and reducing ground-level ozone.
As one of its air quality pilot cities, Energy Foundation China’s Environmental Program supported the study that assessed the feasibility of Shenzhen achieving the WHO-II standard. Shenzhen’s local environmental protection bureau (EPB) and municipal government subsequently endorsed the findings of this study. Energy Foundation China’s Transportation Program has also been working with the Shenzhen EPB on mobile source emissions control projects. Shenzhen Academy of Environmental Sciences, Clean Air Alliance of China, Regulatory Assistance Project and International Council on Clean Transportation all made important contributions to this work.
On March 24, Energy Foundation China, CAAC and MEP’s Center for Environmental Education and Communications held a media workshop, leading to multiple news stories that are getting the word out on Shenzhen’s success in simultaneously creating air, climate, and economic policy solutions.
The new target is a leap forward, but Shenzhen will still have to refine its control measures and implement them effectively. Energy Foundation China, CAAC and other partners, will provide technical support in these areas. In the long term, Shenzhen’s achievement has the potential to become the benchmark for China’s next national air quality standard.
(Written by Lijian Zhao, Director of the China Environmental Management Program at Energy Foundation China)